Beauty for ashes - this phrase is so hard to decipher because it sounds like "we're trading in beauty for ashes" rather than what it's supposed to mean: "He's giving me beauty [in place of] ashes" or something like that. Why does the bible have to be so silly/smart.
But let's not get caught up in thinking idiom.
Erikson has a theory that infants must negotiate between the two characteristics of trust and mistrust. If the mother is consistent in her moods and in meeting her infant's needs, the infant develops the personality trait of "trust" but if the mother is inconsistent, for example forcing the baby to suckle when he/she doesn't want to or only sometimes appearing when the baby cries out but not always, it develops the characteristic of "mistrust." The ideal result is that the child will be mostly trusting and slightly mistrusting. There is an interesting result. Children who come out of that stage of life with the ideal resolution have a natural mechanism of hope. When the baby is able to trust that when it cries out its mother will come to fulfill its hunger, thirst, or need to be held, it also develops the ability to believe there is a secure future for them. The grown adult who is trusting also has as a part of his or her personality the ability to hope. The mis-trusting adult has a more difficult time. Possibly then Erikson's theory of trust and mistrust can predict who has a disposition that is vulnerable to depression and anxiety.
It bothers me sometimes to read about all these smart people's ideas about why people are the way they are. So much of it is linked to our early developmental years which we cannot un-do. I just want to pray God takes my ashes immediately and replaces it with beauty.
I think Maslow said that we all have an innate drive to discover beauty... and the more broken a person is the more she is aware of that drive.
I want to visit somewhere that has a lot of ash. Or maybe make a lot of ash, just to remember how annoying ash is. You know, like when you barbecue and the wind blows it all into your face.
